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Tobago – scary Caribbean mothers keep crime down
It was the early 1990s and I was floating in the turquoise blue waters of Tobago’s Caribbean shore engaged in conversation with a local chap about – believe it or not – crime on the island. I’d been to other Caribbean islands before but found Tobago to be the most unpretentious, wholesome, unspoilt destination of them all.
Plus, there was no crime. A real plus for a single lady travelling alone. I saw tourists filing off long haul jets with their designer trainers and expensive cameras, moving amongst local people who would need to work for 20 years to save for either. And yet there was no visible resentment. The Tobagonian people are a shy yet proud people – they love the fact that you love their island and they know how important tourism is to their livelihoods.
I couldn’t understand why the place was so safe for tourists – why compared to other Caribbean destinations this one shone as a safe haven. I was in my early thirties, still in good shape for my age, and yes, there was the inevitable interest from the local chaps – but always in such a polite way. So here I was at Store Bay in Tobago doing a cooling off dip from the fabulously blistering heat, and found myself next to a dreadlocked local youngster who was asking me how I was enjoying my holiday and did I like the island.
He was interesting, and being a nosey journalist researching for www.simplytobago.com I found myself asking him a dozen questions most tourists wouldn’t be interested in knowing the answers to. And he was a good sport, even when he realised his advances were wasted. As I regularly checked my bikini to make sure the waters weren’t displacing anything they shouldn’t, we talked about the economy, transport, and religion.
I asked him why he thought there wasn’t any crime on the island. The answer he gave me seemed alarmingly simple, and if only government ministers were to have bobbed in the tropical seas with this young chap on one of their ‘fact-finding’ missions funded by the tax payer, they’d have learned a lot and saved us all a fortune.
My dreadlocked friend looked amused at my ignorance with the question I’d asked. Why wasn’t there any crime on the island of Tobago? ‘We’re all scared of our mothers’, he said, in a way that sounded like it should be obvious. ‘If we get into trouble our mothers would cuss us. And besides, where would we go? This island is tiny. There’s nowhere to hide’.
How refreshing. A young man in his twenties, raised in a Christian household, going to church in his best suit every Sunday, brought up to remember his manners and do what his mom tells him. Over my years travelling to this island I saw this attitude as the norm across a whole generation of young people. They respected their elders and each other.
Sadly today, the picture is slightly different. Drugs and a drip, drip feed of the greedy wealthy states with our obsession with ‘stuff’ has inevitably had an effect on the island’s young people. Tobago has seen 15 murders in 2009. For this beautiful island, that’s a shocking and unacceptable figure. Compared to other Caribbean islands like Jamaica (1660 murders in 2009) and the Bahamas (82 murders), it’s a drop in the ocean, and it certainly doesn’t dissuade me from returning to Tobago.
It’s a place I have always felt safe in. I remember on my first solo trip there, walking down an unlit road late at night to meet a friend for dinner. I heard foot steps behind me from more than one person. I tightened my grip on my handbag and deliberately slowed down, looking and praying for a passing car or other walker. I remember thinking how stupid I was to be walking alone late at night in a place like this. The footsteps behind me didn’t slow. My heart paced and I braced myself.
Then 3 young local men walked past me – all smartly dressed and smiling. ‘Good evening, miss’ one of them said. ‘You have a nice evening’. And they passed and went on their way. I felt ashamed. This is the real Tobago – that I know and still love.
About the Author
Jane-Louise Green is a freelance writer and owner of the tourists’ destination website www.simplytobago.com
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